Read Langston Hughes’s “Open Letter to the SouthComplete the Response Questions (1-5)
Question 1. Who does Hughes blame for “the lies of color” (line 25) that divide black from white? Do you agree?
Question 2. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), the most prominent African American of his, is now often seen as an accommodationist who urged only gradual progress toward equality between blacks and whites. Why do you think Hughes tells his reader to “forget what Booker T. said” (line 19)?
Question 3. If you think of this poem as an argument, what is Hughes’s claim? Who is his audience? And what is his evidence? Do you think he makes the right choices for his argument?
Question 4. What do you think Hughes means by the following lines: “We did not know that we were brothers /Now we know!” (line47-48)?
Question 5. Hughes is hoping that class solidarity is stronger than racial division. Was this the case in 1932? Is it the case Today?
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